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JANUARY 18 VHS HISTORY LEASON : THE DECLINE OF VHS
The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard developed by Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) and launched in Europe/Asia in September 1976 (U.S. launch was June 1977), with The Young Teacher being the first movie to be released and A History of Violence, released on home video in 2006, being the last in the North American market. By the 1990s, VHS became a standard format for consumer recording and viewing, after competing in a fierce format war with Sony Corporation's Betamax and, to a much lesser extent, Philips' Video 2000, MCA's Laserdisc and RCA's Capacitance Electronic Disc. VHS initially offered a longer playing time than the Betamax system, and it also had the advantage of a far less complex tape transport mechanism. Although VHS and Betamax were competing formats, several of VHS's critical technologies are licensed from Sony. Early VHS machines could rewind and fast forward the tape considerably faster than a Betamax VCR because they unthreaded the tape from the playback heads before commencing any high-speed winding. Most newer VHS machines do not perform this unthreading step, as head-tape contact is no longer an impediment to fast winding, owing to improved engineering. DVDs rentals surpassed VHS rentals in the US in 2003, surprising some industry officials. By 2006, most major film studios stopped releasing new movie titles in VHS format, opting for DVD-only releases. Many leading retailers have stopped selling pre-recorded movies on VHS, although VHS prerecorded cassettes are still popular with many collectors, mainly because there are thousands of titles that are still unavailable on DVD or other newer formats. The VHS VCR was a mainstay in the TV-equipped living room for more than a decade, but was replaced by newer technologies. For time-shifting (off the air or cable/satellite taping), hard-drive based DVRs have replaced the VCR as the time-shifting device of choice, especially in households with subscriber-based TV-services. The home camcorder market, one which VHS shared with alternative formats, has already transitioned to digital-video recording. But the largest blow to VHS was the March 1997 introduction of the DVD format to American consumers.[6] For home-video rental and sales, DVD has completely taken the place of VHS. Following market trends, electronic equipment manufacturers have discontinued VCR production-lines. At most electronics retailers, choice among VHS equipment is increasingly shrinking. Sales are focused on DVD-recorders and subscriber-based DVRs (such as TiVo). Many electronics chains have stopped stocking VHS home-video releases, focusing only on DVD and its statistically insignificant alternatives (UMD and Blu-ray Disc.) Major Hollywood studios no longer issue releases on VHS, leaving new releases to independent and public television. Many TV stations choose to continue to use the VHS format for archiving programs and footage over other formats because of the tapes wide acceptance and availability at a lower cost than many other formats. Because the VHS format is still widely accepted for personal use many stations choose to use it to easily copy and distribute tapes. Virtually only VHS/DVD combination units are available at retail stores in North America The last standalone JVC VHS unit was produced in 2008. The final major Hollywood motion picture released on VHS was David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. Although VHS has quickly faded from mainstream home-video, the VCR is still used in many US households. The Washington Post noted that as of 2005, 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS format VCRs. In spite of the decline of pre-recorded VHS sales, blank, recordable VHS cassettes remain the most popular means of recording live television programming in households around the world. Media conversion services, dual-deck and DVD/VCR combination systems, and archival systems based on VHS will likely continue for many years. Usable VHS equipment can still be purchased secondhand from auction-sites and used equipment dealers. { text from twu.edu }
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